Hihat Question

A good stereo will allow you to hear both the miking and the mix. Some hihats are close miked, and some from further away. Some mixes make the hihat more prominent, and some relegate them to further back in the fabric of the music. 

You should be hearing  all of that. The word for a system in which the high hat is always prominent is “bright.”

Now, as a drummer, your perspective is different than than the audience, and probably different than what the band, producer, and mixing engineer are trying to achieve in reproduced playback.

You can either reconcile that or look for a system with a brighter presentation. There is no right or wrong. It’s your money, you should buy whatever floats your boat.

Another drummer here.  How cymbals are reproduced is also very important to me as part of a system's performance.  I can't listen to a system where cymbals are highlighted, distorted, or muted.  Of course this is heavily recording dependent, so I'll just mention a couple recordings I've used in the past to help me assess whether a system is getting cymbals right -- at least for my tastes.

One is Patricia Barber's "Companion."  It's a live recording at the Green Mill in Chicago, which is an intimate bar setting where I saw her play with her band.  The drums are well recorded so you can clearly locate them in space on stage, and they are of appropriate size as opposed to some recordings where the drums span the entire width of my room.  The cymbals are really well recorded and are situated in their proper positions in the context of the set.  The drums are set back behind the speakers a bit and toward the right side, which is where they were located when I saw them play.  The cymbals sound very clear, distinct, and dynamic.  As a drummer you'll just know it sounds right.

Another recording I've used is Keb' Mo's "Slow Down."  This is a good studio recording where the drums and cymbals sound bigger and more explosive.  Here the drums are in the center rear of the soundstage and sound slightly raised to me.  Crashes are very dynamic, but you can still hear the tone and various weights of the cymbals. 

I mention these recordings because they're readily available if you don't already have them, the music is good, and since you can't get out and demo you might be able to use them as a benchmark of sorts.  If the cymbals sound real and right to you (and certainly not muted) in these recordings then your system is fine IMHO and the other systems are likely emphasizing and/or pulling the cymbals unnaturally forward in the mix.  Given your equipment my money's on your system being just fine.  If you think you might still want more detail and bite, I'd play around with some used silver interconnects like Acoustic Zen Silver Reference or something similar since they're so easy and inexpensive to send through the mail.  Hope this helps. 

I can hear ya...as a crappy bass player, live sound guy and mobile recording idiot without savant...
and you have some superb advice above...
linking back to a reference you know and trust well will keep you from chasing your tail...
hoping Eric Jerde posts here, he plays and has a great ear, some of his references would be valuable...
me ?
i have a nice Sangiovese open, Levon Helm playing on The Last Waltz... some really nice work there....

And the Acoustic Zen are very hard to beat without spending crazy ( as some would even say essential) money $$$$$$

Thanks everybody. I’ll check those recordings out in the next few days. 

The Patricia Barber (A Fortnight in France) disc I own sounds great, drums and all.

I’ll gut check my speaker positioning and listening distance as well to insure I’m not sacrificing treble detail for bass, etc.

Also, I have some various cables to experiment with, nothing exotic, but at least different.

Thanks again for your thoughtful comments and guidance.

Kind regards-